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Abstract

Conflicts over human rights in relations between East Asia and the West have
increased since the end of the Cold War. Western governments express concern about
human rights standards in East Asian countries. In the East, these expressions have
been perceived as interference in internal affairs. Due to dramatic economic
development, East Asian nations recently have gained in pride and self-confidence as
global actors. Such development is observed with suspicion in the West. Concerned
about the decline of global U.S. influence, some American scholars have re-invented
the notion of "culture" to point at an alleged East Asian threat. Also East Asian
statesmen use the cultural argument by claiming the existence of so-called 'Asian
values', which they allege are the key to Eastern economic success.
This thesis argues that issues of human rights in East-West relations are not
only a consequence of well-intended concern by Western governments regarding the
human rights and welfare of the citizens of East Asian nations, but are in fact
dominated by and used as a pawn in interplay with more complicated questions of
global power and economic relations between East and West.
The thesis reviews the relevance of culture in East-West relations. In the West,
particularly Samuel P. Huntington with his prediction of the Clash of Civilizations
stands out. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew has been very vocal on the Eastern side.
Whereas the West tries to cope with its decrease of global influence, after hundreds of
years under Western hegemonism, the East believes in an Asian way of development
without interference form the West. Most of this dispute revolves around the issue of
human rights. The West claims the universality of rights which in fact emphasizes
political and civil rights. Western countries critizise poor human rights standards in
East Asia. The East, in return, accuses the West of hypocritical policies that seek
global dominance. East Asian governments assert that due to a different stage of
development they have to stress first their rights to development in order to assure
stability. In particular, China argues this way. The country's leadership, however,
shows concern about human rights and has already improved its human rights record
over the past years. This thesis analyses the dispute over human rights in a case study
on Germany and China. Both countries have a mutual interest in trade relations
which has conflicted with Germany's criticism of China's problematic human rights
record. In 1996, the two countries clashed after the German parliament passed a
resolution condemning China's treatment of Tibet. This caused a lot of damage to the
Chinese-German relationship which in the course of the year went back to normality.
In the light of these frictions a German human rights policy that focuses on
unspectacular grass-roots support of China, for example in strengthening China's legal
system, would be preferable. Such co-operation must be based on mutual respect.